BOYCOTTING THE BRITISH

Hokitika Guardian, 15 January 1926, Page 2

BOYCOTTING THE BRITISH

A HUMILIATING SITUATION. BRITISH DIPLOMACY OVER-TTMID [Australia & N.Z. Cable Association.] LONDON, Jan. 13. The Morning I’ost has received a telegram from Mr L. Lecfe Stanley Dodwell, President of the China Association, describing the situation in China as desperate. The Chinese eott prevents tlvc carrying of mexV ,<

ehnndi.se on British ships. The trade of Hongkong is at a standstill. British goods can only reach Canton by devious routes.

He says that a growing colony will ho lost and British prestige will lie ruined unless the boycott is ended. The only British goods which do reach Canton are sold first to Chinese merchants, who send them via Shanghai and Formosa. Thus the the Chinese of Hongkong lose their _ profit. “One requisite in SouthornTV China to-day,” he says, “is that a trader must not he a British subject. Can anything he more humiliating? Yet British diplomacy has totally ed to deal with the situation. is even a theory that negotiations should lx’ carried on through Moscow, as it is suggested that Russia has made trouble in China in retaliation against the British for not ratifying the Soviet Treaty last year. A Chinaman doing-any work for the British is promptly arrested' in Swatow, and then paraded through the town with a paper cap on his head, and is forced to clean the streets. Only the help of the British naval ratings enables the English colony at Swatow to land enough food to keep the British alive, as they cannot buy any food locally. The Britishers in the China trade consider that British diplomacy is over timid, lacking initiative, and T hope that Lord Willingdon, who is coming to China in connection with the Boxer indemnity, will prove a strong man, able to ameliorate the situation.”